Mayor Emanuel talks at Kent College in the West Loop about how kids should be in classrooms and Chicago Teachers Union should focus its frustration on Springfield. March 15, 2017 (John Byrne / Chicago Tribune)

Mayor Emanuel talks at Kent College in the West Loop about how kids should be in classrooms and Chicago Teachers Union should focus its frustration on Springfield. March 15, 2017 (John Byrne / Chicago Tribune)

Chicago Public Schools has restarted a legal effort to block teachers from staging a one-day walkout after state officials rejected a district request to enforce a ruling that a similar strike last April likely violated state law.

With a filing to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board on Wednesday, the district launched a process that could reach a judge before a May 1 strike the Chicago Teachers Union is considering to bring attention to CPS' dismal finances.

A school district attorney on Monday pressed Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office to act on a 2016 labor board opinion that concluded a one-day CTU walkout last year likely violated state laws that govern when Chicago teachers can strike.

"Given the urgency of this matter, and the obvious harm to the nearly 400,000 students of the Chicago Public Schools, your prompt response would be very much appreciated," labor lawyer James Franczek wrote in a letter to Madigan's office.

The Chicago Teachers Union on Wednesday opened the door to a one-day walkout on May Day to bring attention to the "acute crisis" facing city schools, one that Chicago Public Schools officials warn could put an early end to the school year.

"If the board goes ahead with the threat of canceling three...

(Juan Perez Jr.)

The response came from the labor board, which told the district this week that its previous complaint had been erased when a teachers' contract was settled in October, meaning a new protest had to be filed.

The district did so Wednesday, requesting an order that bars the CTU from striking unless it stays within the bounds of state law.

After getting the go-ahead from its House of Delegates earlier this month, the union has said members will vote April 5 on a May 1 date. "Even if the strike itself would be unlawful, consideration of whether to strike is protected," CTU attorney Robert Bloch said Thursday. "There's nothing unlawful about the union engaging in those activities."

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday that while he understands teachers' frustrations about education funding, students should be in school.

"Our kids used to be cheated on time," said Emanuel, who campaigned in his first term to extend the year for CPS students. "They need more time in class."

But the mayor's schools chief, Forrest Claypool, has said the school year could end three weeks early without a favorable ruling in the district's education funding lawsuit against the state, or if the state fails to provide $215 million to help cover the district's massive teacher pension bill.

The shortened school year prompted the union's consideration of a strike, CTU officials have said.

The union said early totals showed 72 percent of voting members approved the deal and 28 voted against it. Results from fewer...

The Chicago Teachers Union voted late Tuesday to approve a four-year contract reached with Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration just prior to a strike deadline last month.

The union said early totals showed 72 percent of voting members approved the deal and 28 voted against it. Results from fewer...

(Juan Perez Jr.)

Union and school board negotiators were in heated contract negotiations that threatened to spark the second teachers strike of Emanuel's tenure when the CTU staged a one-day walkout last April 1.

The union's move led to a legal challenge from the district, and in May the state labor board concluded that the April demonstration was likely illegal.

The labor board granted a CPS request to have a circuit court judge bar the union from staging a similar walkout, at least until the panel moved through a lengthy process to reach a final decision on the legality of the one-day strike.

The labor board "can't enforce that ruling ourselves," said John Brosnan, an attorney and staff member with the labor board. "So what we do is we send that to the attorney general's office."

The attorney general could ask a judge to issue an injunction that echoes the board's decision. But that never happened.

"This is where it gets kind of opaque," Brosnan said. "When the board issues that order, does the attorney general have to go into court, or do they have any discretion to say, 'This is silly, we're not doing this' or, 'We disagree with this.' Are they compelled to do it?

"It's not like placing an order at the deli, where you get what you ask for. They get some prioritization of it, I guess, is the way to look at it."

Madigan's office has not said why it did not pursue a court order. The union and school district agreed to withdraw pending unfair labor practice charges relating to contract negotiations after reaching a contract last fall.

By December, CPS had withdrawn its case against the one-day strike. The labor board then dismissed the case.

A version of this article appeared in print on March 17, 2017, in the News section of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "CPS restarts legal effort to stop teachers walkout on May Day" —
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